Award winning actor and hip-hop hopeful, Merlin Santana, known for his macho portrayal of Romeo on the The Steve Harvey Show, may have been set up and was a target for a robbery, police said.

During an interview with an officer from the LAPD, AllHipHop.com uncovered some exclusive details to the motive that may have led to the death of Merlin Santana. The officer, who requested to remain anonymous, stated that investigators said that the women currently being held for questioning in this case “set Santana up” and that she and two other young men planned to rob Santana and the driver of the car in which he was murdered in.

The LAPD source went further to add the following sequence of events that led to the murder:

On the evening in question, Santana and a friend had met the young women, while partying at an undisclosed location. As the evening grew on, it’s unknown who suggested it, however, the party made its way to what is believed to be the young woman’s house, on Victoria Avenue in the Crenshaw district located in South Los Angeles. There, Santana waited in the car while his friend went into a house with the young women. Sources then say, the young women left briefly to pick up “more drinks” for the evening’s festivities, and then returned with two unidentified men. Investigators believe that while the young woman was away from the house she allegedly called the two additional murder suspects, for what police feel was an attempt to “set up and rob” the known popular WB star and his friend.

When Santana and friend noticed the women returning with these two other men, sources say, they got into another car to leave and that’s when two shots were fired into the vehicle containing Santana and his associate.

One shot was believed to have been fired from a shotgun held by one of two male suspects who exited their car and was then standing in the middle of Victoria Avenue. The round then struck Santana in the back of the head killing him instantly, the source said.

The suspects then fled the scene, while; Santana’s friend drove to Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards, where he flagged down passing patrol officers.

Merlin Santana represents another addition to the senseless killings that have unfortunately been on the rise in the black entertainment community, including the execution of Run DMC member Jam Master Jay.